Alexei Navalny’s physique has been handed over to his mom, an aide says : NPR

The physique of Russian opposition chief Alexei Navalny has been handed over to his mom, a prime aide to Navalny mentioned Saturday on his social media account.

Ivan Zhdanov, the director of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Basis, made the announcement on his Telegram account and thanked “everybody” who had referred to as on Russian authorities to return Navalny’s physique to his mom.

Earlier Saturday, Yulia Navalnaya, Navalny’s widow, accused President Vladimir Putin of mocking Christianity by attempting to drive his mom to conform to a secret funeral after his loss of life in an Arctic penal colony.

“Thanks very a lot. Because of everybody who wrote and recorded video messages. You all did what you wanted to do. Thanks. Alexei Navalny’s physique has been given to his mom,” Zhdanov wrote.

Navalny, 47, Russia’s most well-known opposition politician, unexpectedly died on Feb. 16 in an Arctic penal colony and his household have been combating for greater than per week to have his physique returned to them. Outstanding Russians launched movies calling on authorities to launch the physique and Western nations have hit Russia with extra sanctions as punishment for Navalny’s loss of life in addition to for the second anniversary of its invasion of Ukraine.

Navalny’s mom, Lyudmila Navalnaya, continues to be in Salekhard, Navalny’s press secretary Kira Yarmysh mentioned on X, previously Twitter. Lyudmila Navalnaya has been within the Arctic area for greater than per week, demanding that Russian authorities return the physique of her son to her.

“The funeral continues to be pending,” Yarmysh tweeted, questioning whether or not authorities will permit it to go forward “because the household desires and as Alexei deserves.”

Earlier Saturday, Navalny’s widow mentioned in a video that Navalny’s mom was being “actually tortured” by authorities who had threatened to bury Navalny within the Arctic jail. They, she mentioned, prompt to his mom that she didn’t have a lot time to decide as a result of the physique is decomposing, Navalnaya mentioned.

“Give us the physique of my husband,” Navalnaya mentioned earlier Saturday. “You tortured him alive, and now you retain torturing him useless. You mock the stays of the useless.”

Navalny, 47, Russia’s most well-known opposition politician, unexpectedly died on Feb. 16 within the penal colony, prompting lots of of Russians throughout the nation to stream to impromptu memorials with flowers and candles.

Authorities have detained scores of individuals as they search to suppress any main outpouring of sympathy for Putin’s fiercest foe earlier than the presidential election he’s virtually sure to win. Russians on social media say officers do not need to return Navalny’s physique to his household, as a result of they concern a public present of assist for him.

Navalnaya accused Putin, an Orthodox Christian, of killing Navalny.

“No true Christian might ever do what Putin is now doing with the physique of Alexei,” she mentioned, asking, “What is going to you do together with his corpse? How low will you sink to mock the person you murdered?”

Saturday marked 9 days because the opposition chief’s loss of life, a day when Orthodox Christians maintain a memorial service.

Folks throughout Russia got here out to mark the event and honor Navalny’s reminiscence by gathering at Orthodox church buildings, leaving flowers at public monuments or holding one-person protests.

Muscovites lined up outdoors town’s Christ the Savior Cathedral to pay their respects, in line with photographs and movies printed by unbiased Russian information outlet SOTAvision. The video additionally exhibits Russian police stationed close by and officers stopping a number of folks for an ID examine.

As of early Saturday afternoon, at the least 27 folks had been detained in 9 Russian cities for displaying assist for Navalny, in line with the OVD-Data rights group that tracks political arrests.

They included Sergei Karabatov, 64, who laid flowers at a Moscow monument to victims of political repression, together with a handwritten observe saying “Do not suppose that is the top.” Additionally arrested was Aida Nuriyeva, from town of Ufa close to the Ural Mountains, who stood in a avenue with an indication saying “Putin is Navalny’s assassin! I demand that the physique be returned!”

Putin is commonly pictured at church, dunking himself in ice water to have a good time the Epiphany and visiting holy websites in Russia. He has promoted what he has referred to as “conventional values” with out which, he as soon as mentioned, “society degrades.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected allegations that Putin was concerned in Navalny’s loss of life, calling them “completely unfounded, insolent accusations in regards to the head of the Russian state.”

Musician Nadya Tolokonnikova, who grew to become extensively recognized after spending practically two years in jail for collaborating in a 2012 protest together with her band Pussy Riot inside Moscow’s Christ the Savior Cathedral, was one in all many distinguished Russians who launched a video through which she accused Putin of hypocrisy and requested him to launch Navalny’s physique.

“We had been imprisoned for allegedly trampling on conventional values. However nobody tramples on conventional Russian values greater than you, Putin, your officers and your clergymen who pray for all of the homicide that you just do, 12 months after 12 months, day after day,” mentioned Tolokonnikova, who lives overseas. “Putin, have a conscience, give his mom the physique of her son.”

Lyudmila Navalnaya mentioned Thursday that investigators allowed her to see her son’s physique within the morgue within the Arctic metropolis of Salekhard. She had filed a lawsuit at a courtroom in Salekhard contesting officers’ refusal to launch the physique. A closed-door listening to had been scheduled for March 4.

Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokesman, mentioned that Lyudmila Navalnaya was proven a medical certificates stating that her son died of “pure causes.”